from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. a hospital for recuperation or for the treatment of chronic diseases

Etymologies

New Latin sānitārium, from Latin sānitās, health; see sanity.

(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

Races, which was written by a number of MGM contract writers including George Seaton (who later went on to write and direct Miracle on 34th Street), seems to me to soften the Brothers up quite a bit more; Groucho's less of a * schnorrer*, Chico has a real job (working at the sanitarium), as does Harpo (a jockey?!), and their goals are even nobler: they don't just want to help out young lovers, they want to save a failing sanitarium from the evil businessman.

After I figured out about having CFS, I switched to fantasies of the other kind of sanitarium, those elegant refuges for wealthy folks with tuberculosis, where a kindly nurse in a starched uniform wheels you out in your wicker bath chair onto the porch to take the air while you make desultory conversation with the other patients and sip lukewarm tea.

Evading an effort (on the part of an aunt, I believe) to get him locked up safely in a "sanitarium," he began a trip round the world with an orgy which continued from San Francisco to Bangkok, where, in the company of some congenial fellow travellers, he interfered in a native ceremonial with the result that one of his companions was drowned.